Alan Bragg Posted April 10, 2008 Share Posted April 10, 2008 Hello. My name is Alan and I am 19 years old. I live in Edinburgh, Scotland. I was raised by christian parents, I attended sunday school from age 3 until 14. My primary school was meant to teach me "religion" but for some reason they taught me all the nicest tidiest stories out the christian bible instead. I feel cheated that at that early age, before the concept of a "metaphore" was perfectly understood by any childs brain I was being repeatedly taught such nonesense as Noah's Flood in a literal sense. And later on this bible story made me realise the truth behind christianity. As a child, I never thought about the millions of people supposedly killed in Noah's flood. Even as a metaphore there is no easy way to deal with this genocide of people, even if they were "ungodly". This was one of the key reasons I started to change my way of thinking, and which led to me today being proudly atheist. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alpha centauri Posted April 10, 2008 Share Posted April 10, 2008 Hello, Alan and welcome from a fellow newcomer to the site! I agree. It's interesting how little of the Bible many people who profess Christianity really know or understand. Reason is the enemy of religion. If you interpret the Bible literally, then the god portrayed is truly a cruel, schizophrenic monster who has done far more harm to the world and humanity than any devil ever could. And if that's not enough, there's the threat of eternal torment for any who dare to question and to fall out of line. The "loving, forgiving god" bit just doesn't jibe with the recorded "actions" of this supposedly superior being. I agree with the words of Gene Roddenberry (creator of Star Trek) in his views on god and justice: "We must question the story logic of having an all-knowing all-powerful God, who creates faulty Humans, and then blames them for his own mistakes." Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alan Bragg Posted April 10, 2008 Author Share Posted April 10, 2008 Thanks for the welcome! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Comanche Posted April 10, 2008 Share Posted April 10, 2008 Welcome to the site! I agree about metaphors. As children, we take things at face value more often. Santa Clause is real? Okay! Snakes talk? Okay! It seems like the Bible is just an oddity that people continue to take seriously even when they know better. Congrats on digging through all the lies. My religions class was pretty much the opposite of yours - we learned about all the major religions and a few smaller ones, despite the fact that a fundie in my class was always screaming "Blasphemy!" To have a certain religion hoisted on you in public school is inexcusable, and I commend you for being able to see through the curtain some schools draw to "shield" students from "blasphemy." Hope you enjoy your stay here, Comanche Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alan Bragg Posted April 10, 2008 Author Share Posted April 10, 2008 My parents just do not get why I am so bitter about it. Yes I might have taken Santa Claus or the Tooth Fairy literally at that age, but they laugh at these characters now whilst having a deep-rooted belief that Noah's Flood actually occurred. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest eejay Posted April 10, 2008 Share Posted April 10, 2008 Hello Alan and welcome. I too, at an early age struggled with the Noah story and others, if I really let myself think. Most of the time I tried not to give it too much thought though. Hey, everyone else in my life at that time seemed to buy it. I still wanted to believe there was a god and all. Of course, the older I got those issues became harder to ignore along with the fact that x-tianity is quite oppressive to women. By the time I was in my teens, I was pretty much certain that I didn't believe in x-tianity. Of course there was a lot of discord in the house over it, while I still lived with my parents. You mention that you are 19, are you totally on your own? Are you having to deal with x-tian parents, or roomates? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
♦ nivek ♦ Posted April 10, 2008 Share Posted April 10, 2008 Alan, Welcome to ExC. Great place to spend hours of your life learning and hopefully *unlearning* a lot of things that may provide some comfort and use... Not sure if the Ultimate Question is answered here, but we can come close. kevinL Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alan Bragg Posted April 10, 2008 Author Share Posted April 10, 2008 Hello Alan and welcome. I too, at an early age struggled with the Noah story and others, if I really let myself think. Most of the time I tried not to give it too much thought though. Hey, everyone else in my life at that time seemed to buy it. I still wanted to believe there was a god and all. Of course, the older I got those issues became harder to ignore along with the fact that x-tianity is quite oppressive to women. By the time I was in my teens, I was pretty much certain that I didn't believe in x-tianity. Of course there was a lot of discord in the house over it, while I still lived with my parents. You mention that you are 19, are you totally on your own? Are you having to deal with x-tian parents, or roomates? I live in university accomodation, and next year I will share a flat with 3 other good good people, none of whome are christian either. My girlfriend is also atheist, as is her mother, so I see myself as EXTREMELY lucky! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
R. S. Martin Posted April 10, 2008 Share Posted April 10, 2008 The strangest stories of early Genesis for me were the ones about Cain. Where did he get his wives if Adam and Eve had only had him and Abel? It seemed that Cain had killed his only brother and that no girls had been born yet. Also, when God sent Cain into exile he set a mark on him so people wouldn't kill him. But if the only other people existing in the world were Adam and Eve, who could there possibly have been to kill him? When I asked my mother about this she would only sigh and try to distract me from the questions. All that did was teach me not to ask my questions out loud. It did not make the questions go away. Eventually, the unanswered questions did lead to my deconversion. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pitchu Posted April 10, 2008 Share Posted April 10, 2008 Welcome, Alan, and, yes, your living and social situation does sound about the best I've heard from our younger contingent here. Make the most of it! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Grandpa Harley Posted April 10, 2008 Share Posted April 10, 2008 Here you go... Dore thought about it for you... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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